Karmic Information Theory

Submitted by Samuel Anderson on November 25, 2015

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Sara Ramirez and the group of sundry tourists and yoga enthusiasts arrived at the mountaintop Buddhist monastery after dark. They were exhausted, as they had parked their vehicles at the base of the mountain and hiked for eight hours under the sweltering sun. Most of them went to sleep unceremoniously, forgoing dinner and crawling up the stone steps to collapse on their cots. They slept in a converted temple, open to the air. There was a gold-leafed recess where the shrine had been. Mosquito netting hung from the rafters, gently filling in the breeze.

The head monk roused them at dawn. His name was Lu Tuanjie and he was a slender old man, bald like the rest of the monks. He wore a pair of coke-bottle thick spectacles, the lenses scratched and yellowed from decades of use. Lu Tuanjie was flanked by two young monks who carried trays with tea and rice. The hikers rose cheerfully, exclaiming at the jagged mountain range they now found themselves in, revealed in daylight to be splendorous with jungle and snowcaps.

Sara groaned, feeling the aches in her body before she even moved. She stayed wrapped in her sleeping bag until a pair of dusty, slippered feet appeared before her. They led up to a beaming Lu Tuanjie. â€œMs. Sara, what will you do today? I know all of the other guestsâ€™ activities, but I am not sure what would be best for youâ€¦â€

â€œJust rest,â€ Sara grumbled, wondering what had compelled her to come on this trip. A few days ago, Sara had been in Singapore for a quantum physics conference, giving a talk about the conservation of information. She had found a flyer beside a wastebasket in the conference hall, advertising a week of meditation, yoga and hiking at a Buddhist monastery, with the little quip at the bottom â€œEnlightenment NOT included.â€ Sara was not a yoga enthusiast, nor did she enjoy meditation or even hiking, but she also couldnâ€™t bear to return to the lab and to her research fellow position, or to her apartment, which had sat half-empty for the last two months since her ex-boyfriend had moved out. The idea of a yoga retreat was somewhat laughable to Sara, but it was entirely opposite from her daily life, spent immersed in eigenvalues and differential equations, and the novelty had compelled her to go.

***

After the morning yoga session, in which Sara was sure she had sweated and gasped with greater intensity than little Lu Tuanjie had ever seen, the rest of the group went off on various planned activities. The German couple was sent on a hike, the two American college girls traveling Asia were sent to a hot springsâ€”the local tour guide volunteered to accompany themâ€”and the yoga enthusiasts were sent to a spiritually awakening vantage point. That left the 85-year-old widow, Gertrude Eidelmann, and Sara. The widow opted to stay at the monastery, enjoying the mountain-view and reading.

Sara pulled up a chair beside the widow, and gazed out at the dense jungle and craggy mountains. The cacophonous screeching of apes and birds carried on the breeze. In that moment it was hard for Sara to imagine how her world of hyper-cooled gasses and laser-imprisoned leptons could exist alongside, even explain and define, this natural world.

Sara heard a whistled tune, and turned to see the old monk Lu Tuanjie approaching, carrying a small tray with three cups of tea. He served the widow and Sara and sipped from his own cup, gazing up at the sky with a smile. â€œMs. Sara, you seem troubled,â€ he said. He spoke English with a British accent. Sara assured him she was happy, although maybe not as serene as himself.

He laughed good-naturedly. â€œWhat do you do for a living, Ms. Sara?â€

Sara hesitated. She didnâ€™t feel like talking. She hadnâ€™t felt like talking for the last two months; she had retreated from the world, burying her sorrow in constant work. But this monk radiated goodness, and Sarahâ€™s isolation was beginning to get maddeningly lonely. â€œIâ€™m an academicâ€¦â€ She mumbled.

Lu Tuanjie took a sip of his tea and smiled slyly, â€œYou are not doing yourself justice. You are a quantum physicist.â€

Sara met his eyes in surprise, and protested, â€œWell, not exactlyâ€”â€

Lu Tuanjie continued, â€œBefore the guests arrive, I ask one of the young monks to bike into town and look up your names on the Internet.â€ Sara cocked an eyebrow. The monk looked embarrassed, â€œIt is good to suggest activities that I know the guests will enjoyâ€¦â€ Sarah shrugged and glanced at the widow, but she seemed oblivious to their conversation.

Lu Tuanjie squatted beside Sara, â€œDid you know Buddhism and quantum physics have long been allies? One looks inward, one looks outward, but both reach the same conclusion. The famous Niels Bohr saw this connection when he studied our religion.â€

Sarah hmmed noncommittally. Lu Tuanjie continued, â€œYou donâ€™t believe me? Do you know how one reaches enlightenment? One uses intellect to unravel the divisions and boundaries that one erects to understand the world. Eventually, the divisions fade and one can see, without intellect, the fundamental unity of the universe.â€

Sara was impressed, â€œDid you study physics when you lived in England?â€

â€œNo, no. Well, very little. But it is beautiful that both you and I spend our lives exploring the one-ness of everything, donâ€™t you think? You through equations and laboratories, and I through meditation and prayer.â€ The old monk stood up and gathered his robe. â€œAnd sometimes your studies provide confirmation of our religious knowledge. I read the blurb for your talk. About how information must be conserved in the universeâ€¦ We call that conserved information karma.â€ Lu Tuanjie grinned down at Sara with tea-stained teeth and paced away from her with slow, even steps. Sara sipped at her now cold tea, and laughed at the strangely insightful monk.

Quantum Theory: A to Z

Niels Bohr, one of the founding fathers of quantum physics, said there is no such thing as objective reality. All we can talk about, he said, is the results of measurements we make.

Q is for ... Qubit

One quantum bit of information is known as a qubit (pronounced Q-bit). The ability of quantum particles to exist in many different states at once means a single quantum object can represent multiple qubits at once, opening up the possibility of extremely fast information processing.

A is for ... Act of observation

Some people believe this changes everything in the quantum world, even bringing things into existence.

H is for ... Hawking Radiation

In 1975, Stephen Hawking showed that the principles of quantum mechanics would mean that a black hole emits a slow stream of particles and would eventually evaporate.

F is for ... Free Will

Ideas at the heart of quantum theory, to do with randomness and the character of the molecules that make up the physical matter of our brains, lead some researchers to suggest humans canâ€™t have free will.

A is for ... Atom

This is the basic building block of matter that creates the world of chemical elements â€“ although it is made up of more fundamental particles.

I is for ... Information

Many researchers working in quantum theory believe that information is the most fundamental building block of reality.

R is for ... Randomness

Unpredictability lies at the heart of quantum mechanics. It bothered Einstein, but it also bothers the Dalai Lama.

E is for ... Entanglement

When two quantum objects interact, the information they contain becomes shared. This can result in a kind of link between them, where an action performed on one will affect the outcome of an action performed on the other. This â€œentanglementâ€ applies even if the two particles are half a universe apart.

S is for ... SchrÃ¶dingerâ€™s Cat

A hypothetical experiment in which a cat kept in a closed box can be alive and dead at the same time â€“ as long as nobody lifts the lid to take a look.

L is for ... Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

At CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, this machine is smashing apart particles in order to discover their constituent parts and the quantum laws that govern their behaviour.

A is for ... Alice and Bob

In quantum experiments, these are the names traditionally given to the people transmitting and receiving information. In quantum cryptography, an eavesdropper called Eve tries to intercept the information.

U is for ... Uncertainty Principle

One of the most famous ideas in science, this declares that it is impossible to know all the physical attributes of a quantum particle or system simultaneously.

M is for ... Multiverse

Our most successful theories of cosmology suggest that our universe is one of many universes that bubble off from one another. Itâ€™s not clear whether it will ever be possible to detect these other universes.

H is for ... Hidden Variables

One school of thought says that the strangeness of quantum theory can be put down to a lack of information; if we could find the â€œhidden variablesâ€ the mysteries would all go away.

S is for ... SchrÃ¶dinger Equation

This is the central equation of quantum theory, and describes how any quantum system will behave, and how its observable qualities are likely to manifest in an experiment.

Y is for ... Young's Double Slit Experiment

In 1801, Thomas Young proved light was a wave, and overthrew Newtonâ€™s idea that light was a â€œcorpuscleâ€.

X is for ... X-ray

In 1923 Arthur Compton shone X-rays onto a block of graphite and found that they bounced off with their energy reduced exactly as would be expected if they were composed of particles colliding with electrons in the graphite. This was the first indication of radiationâ€™s particle-like nature.

N is for ... Nonlocality

When two quantum particles are entangled, it can also be said they are â€œnonlocalâ€: their physical proximity does not affect the way their quantum states are linked.

T is for ... Tunnelling

This happens when quantum objects â€œborrowâ€ energy in order to bypass an obstacle such as a gap in an electrical circuit. It is possible thanks to the uncertainty principle, and enables quantum particles to do things other particles canâ€™t.

W is for ... Wavefunction

The mathematics of quantum theory associates each quantum object with a wavefunction that appears in the SchrÃ¶dinger equation and gives the probability of finding it in any given state.

R is for ... Radioactivity

The atoms of a radioactive substance break apart, emitting particles. It is impossible to predict when the next particle will be emitted as it happens at random. All we can do is give the probability that any particular atom will have decayed by a given time.

C is for ... Computing

The rules of the quantum world mean that we can process information much faster than is possible using the computers we use now.

L is for ... Light

We used to believe light was a wave, then we discovered it had the properties of a particle that we call a photon. Now we know it, like all elementary quantum objects, is both a wave and a particle!

Z is for ... Zero-point energy

Even at absolute zero, the lowest temperature possible, nothing has zero energy. In these conditions, particles and fields are in their lowest energy state, with an energy proportional to Planckâ€™s constant.

R is for ... Reality

Since the predictions of quantum theory have been right in every experiment ever done, many researchers think it is the best guide we have to the nature of reality. Unfortunately, that still leaves room for plenty of ideas about what reality really is!

Q is for ... Quantum biology

A new and growing field that explores whether many biological processes depend on uniquely quantum processes to work. Under particular scrutiny at the moment are photosynthesis, smell and the navigation of migratory birds.

B is for ... Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC)

At extremely low temperatures, quantum rules mean that atoms can come together and behave as if they are one giant super-atom.

D is for ... Dice

Albert Einstein decided quantum theory couldnâ€™t be right because its reliance on probability means everything is a result of chance. â€œGod doesnâ€™t play dice with the world,â€ he said.

W is for ... Wave-particle duality

It is possible to describe an atom, an electron, or a photon as either a wave or a particle. In reality, they are both: a wave and a particle.

D is for ... Decoherence

Unless it is carefully isolated, a quantum system will â€œleakâ€ information into its surroundings. This can destroy delicate states such as superposition and entanglement.

T is for ... Teleportation

Quantum tricks allow a particle to be transported from one location to another without passing through the intervening space â€“ or thatâ€™s how it appears. The reality is that the process is more like faxing, where the information held by one particle is written onto a distant particle.

J is for ... Josephson Junction

This is a narrow constriction in a ring of superconductor. Current can only move around the ring because of quantum laws; the apparatus provides a neat way to investigate the properties of quantum mechanics.

G is for ... Gravity

Our best theory of gravity no longer belongs to Isaac Newton. Itâ€™s Einsteinâ€™s General Theory of Relativity. Thereâ€™s just one problem: it is incompatible with quantum theory. The effort to tie the two together provides the greatest challenge to physics in the 21st century.

B is for ... Bell's Theorem

In 1964, John Bell came up with a way of testing whether quantum theory was a true reflection of reality. In 1982, the results came in â€“ and the world has never been the same since!

G is for ... Gluon

These elementary particles hold together the quarks that lie at the heart of matter.

I is for ... Interferometer

Some of the strangest characteristics of quantum theory can be demonstrated by firing a photon into an interferometer: the deviceâ€™s output is a pattern that can only be explained by the photon passing simultaneously through two widely-separated slits.

C is for ... Cryptography

People have been hiding information in messages for millennia, but the quantum world provides a whole new way to do it.

K is for ... Kaon

These are particles that carry a quantum property called strangeness. Some fundamental particles have the property known as charm!

V is for ... Virtual particles

Quantum theoryâ€™s uncertainty principle says that since not even empty space can have zero energy, the universe is fizzing with particle-antiparticle pairs that pop in and out of existence. These â€œvirtualâ€ particles are the source of Hawking radiation.

P is for ... Planck's Constant

This is one of the universal constants of nature, and relates the energy of a single quantum of radiation to its frequency. It is central to quantum theory and appears in many important formulae, including the SchrÃ¶dinger Equation.

S is for ... Superposition

Quantum objects can exist in two or more states at once: an electron in superposition, for example, can simultaneously move clockwise and anticlockwise around a ring-shaped conductor.

U is for ... Universe

To many researchers, the universe behaves like a gigantic quantum computer that is busy processing all the information it contains.

M is for ... Many Worlds Theory

Some researchers think the best way to explain the strange characteristics of the quantum world is to allow that each quantum event creates a new universe.

P is for ... Probability

Quantum mechanics is a probabilistic theory: it does not give definite answers, but only the probability that an experiment will come up with a particular answer. This was the source of Einsteinâ€™s objection that God â€œdoes not play diceâ€ with the universe.